Lockers, Hams, and Mistletoe
by Flaire Murasawa
Summary: Trunks's and Goten's antics and problems over winter break. No romance between any characters just lettin' ya know. PG13 for choice words and situations. Discontinued.


Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball Z, GT, or any of the characters from any of those series. They all belong to Akira Toriyama, whatever animation company, and whoever else I forgot. I am not making any profit off of this, but if I did try that, I wouldn't be making any profit anyway.  
  
I know this story is out of season, and, frankly, I don't care. I don't have to write certain stories at certain holidays unless I want to. And besides, other people write stories that take you to different places at different times, so why can't I do that? (take that, Chibi Akane-chan2, you crazy time-is-everything freak) What's wrong with reading a St.Patrick's Day story in September? Geez, if people can read stories that take place in different times, I can write them. It's the plot that counts, all you crazy people who think that "Oh, look at this crazy person posting a Valentine's Day story in June," or "A winter story in April." I'll have you know that in the winter here, it's summer in Australia, and I know that ff.n gets writers from that continent, so don't you go criticizing me for being unseasonable! If you flame me for writing a story out of season, I will alert the fanfiction.net author abuse people about you (you critical, no-brain perfectionist reality  
slobs... part of writing is taking you away from reality you cheap all-fact people that shouldn't be on this site in the first place!)  
  
I am new at this, and if you saw my first story, it is more than slightly obvious. And once again, if you flame me because of my writing style (you can offer tips, but no going "God, your grammar sucks!") I have a Pokemon named Starr that I don't mind sicking on people.  
  
Thank Dende for a little thing known as... Christmas Break!  
  
Goten was grinning as he slammed his locker shut. Well, he was almost always grinning, but he had a decent reason this time. Two-and-a-half whole weeks of no school! No homework! Sleeping in! Not having to worry about starving until he got home because the school wouldn't let him get much more than a crumb out of the cafeteria. Well, he thought it was crumb-sized, but he didn't understand the fact that full-blooded humans viewed it as a twelve-course meal.  
  
He could hardly keep from going super-speed or flying down the halls of Orange-Star. His head was replaying the same message over and over: No school! More sleep! More food! More sparring with Trunks! More... getting yelled at by Mom.  
  
Goten's happy-thought process halted in it's tracks. He kept walking, but he just realized that spending more time at home meant doing more bad things for ChiChi to yell at him about. Maybe he should try to stay over at Trunks's and Gohan's as much as he could.  
  
The ebony-haired buy arrived at his destination: Trunks's locker. Which was currently open, and had a very hot-looking body sticking out of it. Unfortunately, the head was stuck in the locker.  
  
Which was really too bad for him, Goten thought evilly as he looked to his left, then to his right. He calmly placed his hand on the open door of his best friend's locker. Then, directing his eyes down the hall, he slammed it.  
  
There was a "clang!" and an "Ow!"  
  
Trunks rapidly pulled his head out of his locker, and glared accusingly at Goten.  
  
Goten was looking off into the distance, whistling, not trusting himself to look at Trunks otherwise he was going to have to flee for his life on the way home.  
  
"Goten..."  
  
He gulped. Okay, he obviously was going to be chased all the way home anyway. He slowly turned his head. "Hey, Trunks."  
  
The older boy was staring at him menacingly, a large pink bump protruding through the strands of his violet-hair.  
  
Goten couldn't help it. Even though he knew his life was at stake, he did have the Son genes in him.  
  
He laughed. Goten laughed and pointed at the giant grapefruit-sized swelling on Trunks's head. He laughed until there were tears streaming out of eyes. The look on Trunks's face after he did that managed to be funny and scary at the same time. Too bad Goten didn't really notice the scary part until after he finished drawing attention to Trunks's "injury."  
  
The next thing he knew, he was being dragged down the corridors by a very, very pissed Trunks. And a very, very pissed Trunks was very, very scary.  
  
"Get back here, you!"  
  
"Gack!"  
  
Trunks and Goten were flying to their individual homes. In more detailed terms, Trunks was chasing Goten as though it was the younger boy's time to die and Trunks was going to make sure Goten died.  
  
"Can't we talk this out? Yah!" yelped Goten as he dodged yet another ki blast.  
  
"Look, I know that couldn't have really hurt you, and your locker wasn't busted so-yipe!-there's no reason for you to be acting like this-Ack!" Goten winced as he felt his hair frizzle.  
  
"So what? Get back here and fight me like a man!"  
  
"We're not men! I'm sixteen!"  
  
"Who cares?!!"  
  
Goten ducked, dodged, and basically did everything he could do to keep himself from getting fried. This was a great start to his winter break.  
  
Goten swooped down low, and Trunks followed him, ready with another blast. An idea suddenly clicked in the younger boy's head.  
  
"Mom's not going to like it if you bring me home dead!"  
  
"Who said I was going to kill you?"  
  
Huh?  
  
Goten came to a sudden stop and flew up, looking down as a ki blast, followed by what would-have-been-a-tackle by Trunks, passed under him. Did he hear that right? So he was going to survive the rest of the day?  
  
"I'm just going to horribly mutilate you!!!"  
  
"Aaah!"  
  
Goten zoomed back downwards as Trunks tried to clobber his head.  
  
Geez, knew it was too good to be true, Goten grumbled in his mind. Wait, Capsule Corps was coming up ahead! He was saved! That is, if Trunks wasn't mad enough to follow him home. Again. Then he got another idea.  
  
"Mom said she didn't want me to come home bloody again!"  
  
Trunks didn't let up, just sent another ki blast in reply.  
  
The darker-haired boy dodged and sent a ki blast of his own behind him to hold Trunks off. That didn't work either, as Trunks dodged an kept coming. So Goten just focused on getting out of the way of Trunks's blasts and increasing his speed.  
  
Goten flashed by Capsule Corps, but didn't turn around to check if Trunks had given up. When he did that before, Trunks had tackled him into the ground. So he kept going as fast as he could to his own house.  
  
He started to wonder if he was safe. A ki blast hadn't come in awhile, but he was too busy hauling his butt to try and sense the ki that he was afraid would be behind him. Pretty soon, he could spot the Son home. Now he was safe!  
  
Goten managed a tired grin as he touched down in front of the house. Trunks would have tried something by now...  
  
He froze as he felt a flare of ki behind him.  
  
ChiChi started to wonder where Goten was. Honestly, couldn't he hurry straight home like a good boy? Then she heard the sounds of fighting and yelling outside the house. ChiChi didn't bother looking out the window. She just went to the phone and dialed a familiar number.  
  
"Hi, Bulma? Trunks is at my house with Goten, so don't worry about him. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Yes, again. And they were going to spar later today, too. Yes, I'll make sure he gets home by six. Of course you know he can't get injured by me. Yeah, sure, good-bye."  
  
"You can't really be that mad about it, can you?" Goten tried as a tree flew his way, which he caught and chucked back at his opponent. "I mean, isn't your Mom going to kill you if you get back late?"  
  
Trunks must have gone deaf as soon as they entered that forest, because he obviously wasn't hearing a single thing Goten was saying. They weren't landing any blows, because Goten was on the full defensive and Trunks was on the full offensive.  
  
"I don't think I messed up your hair- Yack!- I mean, nobody really saw that- Help!- C'mon, it's the beginning of two weeks of nothing school!" Goten really thought he should try fighting back, but if he did, he might leave an opening which Trunks would surely take. He was surprised Trunks hadn't gone super-saiyan yet, if he was so mad.  
  
Trunks kept going. Whatever he had for lunch must have been stuffing, because Goten was starting to run out of energy from lack of food. Heck, if Goten had been the one throwing the blows, he would have been exhausted a long time ago. Then his watch beeped.  
  
Oh, this is the time Trunks wanted to meet me for sparring, Goten thought as he got a quick peek at his watch. Well, he has to be at least a little tired by now. If it's a spar he wants, it's a spar he'll get!  
  
Goten uprooted a large tree and swung it at Trunks, who caught it easily. He wrenched it out of Goten's grasp and broke it in half. Goten flew at his friend with a side kick, which Trunks caught and used the opening the younger boy had left to shoot off a ki blast that would have ended with Goten at the other side of a nearby mountain, if he hadn't grabbed Trunks and the force of his own blast hadn't given him time to pull away. As a result, the both of them wound up embedded in the cliff side.  
  
Goten was the first to pull himself out, and flew in front of Trunks, using a ki blast to finish the job of making a hole through the mountain. Goten then flew through the gap, ready to block the attack that was sure to come, but no one was there. Goten blinked, then went back to the other side of what was left of the giant rock. Trunks wasn't there either. He flew around in a circle, not running into the other half-saiyan.  
  
Where'd he go?  
  
Goten flew back into the forest, still ready to meet a blow with one of his own, but nothing happened. He flew back to the rock. Then he flew back to his house. Goten did a ki scan, but couldn't find Trunks anywhere. Well, they did learn how to push down their energy so that it was undetectable, and the scan only worked for a limited distance. He flew back into the forest and scanned again. Zilch. He went to the cliff, which had crumbled into a pile of rocks and rubble by then, and did another search. That was funny. Goten could have sworn that he should have had his will written two seconds ago. Maybe he gave up and went home. Nah, not if he kept on chasing him like that. Oh, well.  
  
Goten went back to his house, although he kept his senses up the whole time. He didn't relax until he went through the door.  
  
"Hi Mom."  
  
ChiChi looked up from the fish she was slicing. "And just where were you all this time?"  
  
Goten gulped. He had been concentrating so much about avoiding death by Trunks that he completely forgot death by mom.  
  
"Uh... sparring?" He really hoped this would work.  
  
"If you were sparring, that means you finished all your homework, right?"  
  
Goten shivered under ChiChi's colder-than-ice glare.  
  
"My... homework?"  
  
"Yes, everybody gets homework, even on winter break. So where are your books, young man?" she asked in a tone of voice that was such cold, sharp steel, it would have been better just to have been cut with the knife she was holding.  
  
Goten thought. He had his books when he left school. He had his books when he was running away from his psycho friend. He didn't have his books when he picked up that tree... oh.  
  
"I dropped them in the forest, but I'm going to get them right now," he said quickly, and ran out the door.  
  
Then he ran back in. "May I have a little snack, first?"  
  
Poor Goten barely got out of the way of the fire that spewed out of ChiChi's mouth.  
  
"I know I dropped them around here somewhere..."  
  
Goten walked around a tree. Then around another one. The pieces of tree that Trunks had shattered were lying in fragments around him.  
  
Where are my books? Goten just knew his mom was going to kill him if he didn't arrive with them. She might not even let him have dinner. Then a thought hit him. Trunks!  
  
Goten didn't think Trunks would have been in a calm enough mind to see Goten drop the books, and realize that if he grabbed them, Goten would be at his mercy. That is, if ChiChi didn't get to him first. Trunks couldn't have done it. Could he?  
  
Goten went back home, ready for the scolding he would get. He was surprised when he found dinner waiting for him instead.  
  
"Oh, Goten, Trunks called," said ChiChi, appearing with platter of rice balls. "He said that you guys were going to study together and should go over to his house right after you eat."  
  
Oh great. Trunks was going to get him on a full stomach, and he wouldn't be able to move right. If Trunks punched him the stomach, maybe the pain would be worth the sight of Trunks getting covered in throw-up. Well, Goten wouldn't eat that much and would arrive in proper fighting condition when he confronted his friend.  
  
Goten sat down, and looked at the feast of fish laid out in front of him.  
  
"Well, what are you waiting for?" ChiChi asked, happy at the thought of her son getting some schoolwork in. "Eat up."  
  
Remember, you're going to fight Trunks. Don't eat as much you usually do. You can do it, Goten. Yeah, you're going to kick his butt. Just remember that.  
  
You didn't remember.  
  
Goten had to admit being full was good, but he was booted out of the house as soon as he finished eating. He started flying to Capsule Corps immediately, and thoughts of getting killed once more appeared in his head. If he was lucky, Bulma made Trunks eat so they would be evenly matched. Of course, if Vegeta heard about it, he would make sure that Trunks ate a minimum of food. Maybe then Trunks would be too starved to fight. Or not. Still, there was the hope that he might live to see the next day, Goten thought to himself. Well, he would just fly really slowly, and take his time. Heck, it would take slower if he walked. Yeah, he would walk. That would take a lot of time and his food would digest faster.  
  
Goten landed and started walking the long way to Capsule Corps.  
  
Trunks was waiting outside, tapping his foot impatiently. Where was that idiot? Stupid Goten, he chickened out. Wait, after that study excuse, ChiChi would make sure that Goten made it there even if it killed her. And Trunks was smart enough to know that nothing could kill ChiChi until she decided she wanted to be killed.  
  
This was it. Trunks was going to beat up Goten so bad that the other boy wouldn't be able to see straight for a week. This was the umpteenth time that Goten had slammed Trunks's locker door on his head. He knew he should really learn by then to keep his head from going all the way in his locker, but Goten didn't have to slam so hard all the time. It was annoying! Trunks was lucky that the door didn't get a dent in it. And besides, the last time Goten did that, Trunks said that he was going to hunt him down and kill him if he did it again. And what did the knucklehead do? He seriously deserved what was coming to him.  
  
Trunks looked up. He couldn't see any stars because it was so cloudy. It should snow sometime over the next few days. Trunks couldn't see Goten either. He was starting to get really hungry.  
  
It was a stroke of genius when Goten was aiming that ki blast at his head earlier that day. Right before the ball of energy hit his face, Trunks phased out and reappeared behind Goten, who thought Trunks was on the other side of the cliff. So Trunks flew in the opposite direction, knowing that if he didn't get home right away, his mother would kill him. Besides, if he caught Goten after dinner, the younger boy would be stuffed and slow. Trunks hated to admit it, but though he was slightly stronger, Goten was slightly faster. He was going to have to work on his speed the next time he went into the gravity room.  
  
Trunks looked through the window to the inside of the house. Bra was watching TV. From the show that was on, Trunks knew that Goten should have been there by then.  
  
The violet-haired prince shook his head. He ducked his head inside and called, "Bra? If Mama asks where I am, tell her I went to see Goten, okay?"  
  
Knowing that Bra heard him, Trunks took off.  
  
He was three-fourth's of the way to the Son residence when he spotted the figure below him.  
  
"Hey, Goten, what are you doing down there?"  
  
Goten looked up to see the keeper of his life above him. Great. Maybe if he screamed loudly enough, his mother would hear and come to save his neck.  
  
"What does it look like I'm doing?" he called, keeping his eyes on the other half-breed.  
  
"Being an idiot," Trunks replied, landing.  
  
Goten knew what was coming next, and he got into a fighting stance. "I was walking. Geez, what are you, blind?"  
  
Trunks got into a fighting stance of his own, already planning his next five moves. "No, but you're dead."  
  
"That's what you think."  
  
They started.  
  
Trunks punched, but it was blocked and returned with an uppercut, which was also blocked. Trunks kicked, and the younger boy flew up, then dived. Trunks dodged as Goten did a flying kick, which Trunks ducked under and tried another kick of his own, getting Goten off his feet for a second before he caught himself by floating. Trunks used this distraction to throw a body blow at Goten, which caught the other boy square in the chest. Goten gasped as the air left his lungs, and got left hook in his face. Goten blocked the next punch and kicked at Trunks, causing his opponent to back up. Then Goten charged with side-kick, this one hitting Trunks's ribs. Goten kicked again as fast as he could, getting just under the other boy's chin, causing Trunks's head to snap back. Goten then did a low kick, but that was countered with a block. That confused Goten for a second. That kick should have stunned Trunks, letting Goten land another blow. Must not have aimed right. Trunks took  
advantage of Goten's thinking process and swung his fist, which was dodged just in time.  
  
"Hey!"  
  
Both teenagers looked up to see an older man standing over them.  
  
"Gohan! What are you doing here?" asked Goten as his big brother touched ground.  
  
"I went to see Mom about Christmas dinner, and she said that she called Bulma's and you and Trunks both weren't there. So she sent me to go look for you guys," Gohan said.  
  
Both boys groaned.  
  
"Great," said Goten. "Did you have to tell her we were going to study, Trunks? Now she's going to be breathing down both of our necks until we actually get to working."  
  
"It was the only thing I could think of to make sure you would get to my house," said Trunks.  
  
"Oh, great. Well, just give me my books so I can get home and not get killed," said Goten, holding his hand out.  
  
"Your books?" Trunks asked, confused. "Didn't you put them down somewhere?"  
  
"Yeah, but you took them."  
  
"I did not take your books."  
  
"Oh yes you did."  
  
"Oh no I didn't."  
  
"Oh yes you did."  
  
"Oh no I didn't."  
  
"Yes you did."  
  
"No I didn't."  
  
"Yes you did."  
  
"No I didn't."  
  
"Yes you did."  
  
"No I didn't."  
  
"Yes you did."  
  
"No I didn't."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"No."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"No."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"No."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"No."  
  
"See? I didn't, and you agreed," said Trunks, triumphantly.  
  
Goten sputtered. "But-- you have-don't you want to be the one kill me? I mean- just give them back."  
  
"But I don't have them," Trunks said.  
  
"Oh yes you do."  
  
"Oh no I don't."  
  
"Oh yes you do."  
  
"Oh no I don't."  
  
"Oh yes you do."  
  
"SSSTTTOOOPPP!"  
  
Dark and light-haired heads turned at the sound of Gohan's voice.  
  
"Didn't you two go through this already?" he asked, exasperated.  
  
Trunks and Goten looked at each other, then looked back at Gohan, shaking their heads.  
  
"Argh! You two still act like you're seven and eight!" Gohan cried, practically pulling at his hair at awful memories about having to babysit the two terrors who were still acting like terrors.  
  
"No we don't," said Trunks. "The way I act now attracts more girls!"  
  
Goten whapped his friend hard on the head before going, "And I'm more mature!"  
  
Trunks got back up and gave Goten a return whap.  
  
"Oh, sure you are!" he said, sarcastically.  
  
Goten got back up and whapped Trunks on the head again. "I'm glad you agree!"  
  
If Gohan wasn't so nice, he would have already exploded.  
  
"Okay, how about this," Gohan said. "You both still act like you're thirteen. Now come on Goten, before Mom send Videl to go find us."  
  
"But Gohaaan," Goten whined, "if Trunks doesn't bring my books back, Mom's going to kill me and then send you out with me to find them. So give," he said, turning back to his friend.  
  
"I told you, I don't have them!"  
  
Goten opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Gohan stepped between them.  
  
"Oh, no, don't start this again," he said.  
  
Goten shut his mouth. Then he opened it again. "Oh yes you-"  
  
"Goten, did you look where you last saw them?" Gohan asked, really not wanting the following pointless argument to commence.  
  
"Yes, I looked, but they weren't there," said Goten.  
  
"Did you look hard?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Did you double-check?"  
  
"Yes. I couldn't find them."  
  
"Okay," said Gohan. "Why don't you spend the night at Trunks's and I'll tell Mom you're spending the night because you're working so hard, and tomorrow morning you guys can go look for Goten's books."  
  
The other two boys were speechless.  
  
"Well, it's too dark to go look for them now, and Mom would get suspicious if we asked for flashlights, or you guys stayed outdoors for too long."  
  
Goten and Trunks still couldn't say anything.  
  
Finally, Goten managed to get out, "Gohan, you are a genius." But what if Trunks uses that as an opportunity to kill me?  
  
Trunks put his two cents in. "Yeah, that plan is flawless." Except for the fact that I might just kill Goten while he's at my place.  
  
"Well, that's what happens when you live with Mom for as long as I have," said Gohan. "So you two boys get back to Caps. Corp., okay?"  
  
"Okay, thanks Gohan! Bye! Say Hi to Pan for me!"  
  
"And me too!"  
  
With that, the two smaller demi-saiyans took off.  
  
"ChiChi told me that you two were planning to study together."  
  
Trunks and Goten had made it safely back to Capsule Corps. That didn't mean that they were safe once the got there. A very peeved Bulma was towering over them menacingly.  
  
"We didn't say study, just do schoolwork," said Trunks, that being the only good answer he could pull out of his head at the moment.  
  
"And what schoolwork would have you away from any house for two hours, with no books or supplies?" the fashion-conscience genius in front of them asked.  
  
"It was a science thing," said Trunks, quickly thinking of something to back that up. "We were observing nocturnal animals that didn't go into hibernation or migrated for the winter, and decided to commit the whole experience to memory in case taking notes startled them from their natural habits."  
  
Bulma glared at the two boys, making them wince. Hopefully, she would buy it. Very hopefully.  
  
"Didn't you do that sort of thing when you were in fifth grade?" she said, skeptically.  
  
"The science teacher gave us an easy and familiar assignment because he wanted to leave us time to relax and spend time with our families during break," Trunks said.  
  
Goten felt himself being cross-examined under Bulma's evil eye. It wasn't any worse than his own mother's, but that didn't make it any less unpleasant.  
  
"Okay," she said finally, letting the two friends relax. "But you better get up to Trunks's room and work, or else Goten gets sent straight home, and you don't get any breakfast tomorrow, Trunks."  
  
"Yes Ma'am."  
  
"Yes Mom."  
  
The pair mock-saluted before obediently going up the stairs.  
  
Bulma looked up as they disappeared through a door and shook her head. Those two were always doing something wrong, and they definitely weren't going to stop any time soon. They were lucky that she was a scientist, not a zoologist.  
  
"That was close," sighed Goten, leaning against the closed door. "I thought that she would find out and call my mom, and after I got yelled out by your mom I would have to listen to mine."  
  
"So?" Trunks said, checking to make sure the door was locked and that Bra wasn't hovering somewhere outside the window. "Not only would my mom have yelled at me, but it would have been something for Bra to rub in my face for a week."  
  
"She can tease you about something as trivial as lying about studying?" Goten asked, grateful that the only person who seemed like a younger sibling to him was his niece Pan, but he didn't have to live with her.  
  
"You wouldn't believe it," groaned Trunks, collapsing face up on his bed. "She teases me about everything, and all I can do is threaten her when Mama or Papa aren't around."  
  
"So what do you think is worse?" Goten asked. "Getting yelled at about the same thing for the same length of time twice or getting yelled at and then getting bugged."  
  
"Getting yelled at and then getting bugged," said Trunks, turning on his side. "If you get yelled at for the same thing for the same amount of time, only twice, you just listen to the first one, use earplugs for the second one, and you can still answer them when they go, `What did I just say?' But getting bugged by the brat... Ugh, you're lucky you don't have to live with one. You were always on the giving end, not the receiving."  
  
Goten thought. When he was little, he always did bug Gohan about Videl when he got older. It was great fun.  
  
Goten fiddled with something he found on the floor. It was a funny little machine-looking thing. He tossed it up and caught it when it came back down. It didn't look interesting. He threw it back on the floor and picked up another thing. This thing looked like something made with legos. When this one didn't do anything, he put that one back on the floor too. Then he picked up something else.  
  
While Goten was digging through the mess on Trunks's carpet, Trunks looked at the clock. It was too early to go to bed, and they couldn't do that much without his mom just knowing they were doing activities that had nothing to do with school. He looked at his bookshelf, which was packed with the books that weren't on the floor, on his desk, and most likely in his dresser. There had to be something they could do. It was the first night of Christmas Break.  
  
"Hey Goten," said Trunks.  
  
Goten looked up.  
  
"Do you want to play a video game?"  
  
The younger boy's face brightened. "Yeah, sure. Did you get anything new?"  
  
"Of course I did," said Trunks, offhandedly. "But there's a slight problem..."  
  
Goten looked at where Trunks was pointing. It was a pile of clothes, papers, and presentation material.  
  
"That's where I saw the game console last," the lighter-haired boy said.  
  
Goten stared. The pile looked pretty thick. If they cleared that, they would have nowhere to sit, and they couldn't see the television screen from the bed. And if they tried moving the set to where they could see what they were doing from the bed, they were going to have to move a lot more things. Oh well, what the heck.  
  
"Let's start digging," said Goten, and he got himself arm-deep into the pile of junk that Trunks had pointed at.  
  
"We're going to have to play with the sound off," said Trunks, "and not make too much noise, or else Mom's going to check on what we're doing."  
  
Goten stopped plowing the floor of Trunks's bedroom.  
  
"In that case, forget it," he said, and sat back down on the floor, looking for another thing to keep his easily-distracted mind on.  
  
Trunks turned back over on his bed. He sure wasn't going to sleep early but he couldn't spend the next few hours doing nothing without falling asleep or going crazy. He peeked out of the corner of his eye. Goten looked occupied, so Trunks decided to cross the room and turn his computer on. He sat down on the computer chair and checked his e-mails. There were less than usual because all the people that usually e-mailed him were busy doing their last-minute Christmas shopping. There was no school for two weeks so there were no bribes for homework/projects, no requests for homework/project help, and no demands for challenges over a girl or popularity power. There were also no notices from girls because the last dance of the year had passed, and they all decided to spend the holidays with their current boyfriends. There were two people who were insane enough to ask for dates for their Christmas presents though. After getting the few he had sorted out, he looked at Goten again,  
who was examining one of Trunks's you-can-tell-Mom-or-Grandpa-made-this-for-me-or-I-made-it-myself gadgets.  
  
Trunks turned on the TV, keeping the volume low. He turned it off a minute later, after finding that there was nothing good showing.  
  
He really wanted to go fight with Goten, watch a movie, or see what his mother was doing, but fighting with Goten might cause noise, all the movie videos were downstairs and he might get caught, and if he saw what his mother doing she would ask if they were done with their work so soon. Wait! He could say that there wasn't much to write as there were not that many animals out at night because of the temperature and season, and they were going to do the rest of their work some other time. Now he could do whatever he wanted.  
  
"Goten, do you want to play a video game, this time with the sound up?" he asked.  
  
The younger boy tossed a little broken piece of something up into the air, and then caught it.  
  
"Won't your mom hear?" Goten asked, fishing around the stuff around him for another interesting item.  
  
Trunks grinned. "Leave that to me."  
  
Three hours and-a-half later...   
  
"Another round?" Trunks asked, ready to reset the console, which had miraculously not over-heated.  
  
"Nah," said Goten, visibly tired of pressing all the buttons and staring at the screen. "How about we watch a movie?"  
  
Trunks looked at his clock, which showed a rather scary hour.  
  
"Yeah, I'll grab three, because if I go down there too late and Mama catches me, she'll cut off the electricity to this room," he said. "Which ones do you want to see?"  
  
After Goten named his choices, Trunks named his, and both played rock-paper-scissors to see which of those choices would be chosen, got ties, got sick of getting ties, and tried cutting deals with each other, Trunks went down to get the tapes and DVDs.  
  
"Oh, and Trunks?"  
  
Trunks looked up. "Yeah, Goten?"  
  
"I'm kinda hungry," Goten said, sheepishly. "Maybe you could-?"  
  
"Sure," said Trunks, and continued on his way down, hoping he wouldn't get caught red-handed with a bunch of movies and food.  
  
He quickly checked Bra's room. She was on the computer, completely absorbed into whatever she was doing. He knew that he wouldn't run into Vegeta, because he would train to as many crazy hours as Bulma spent working. Bulma, he would have to worry about, because she constantly ran back and forth between her lab and the rest of the structure. And if she was the one that caught him, she was the one that would give him the more severe punishment. She cut off the electricity to his room plenty of times before when Goten came to visit, and she certainly wouldn't hesitate to pull that trick again. She had bought the "we finished and we're just going to do some stuff" story earlier, but if they stayed up too late playing, she was going to verbally fry them, and she could verbally fry way better than she could really fry.  
  
Trunks was wary as he collected two video tapes and a DVD. There were two doors leading into the room where the "entertainment center" was, and Bulma could walk through any of them at any second. Then he went to the kitchen to collect what he could. He didn't want to risk making popcorn because the sound of the cooker would definitely be noticed if Bulma walked out of her lab. So he grabbed some snacks and junk food from cupboards and the fridge. He didn't want to try activating one of the robots used to make food, in case of the noise and if Bulma asked when such-and-such things were made. He got out of the kitchen without a mishap.  
  
With his arms full, Trunks looked up the stairs. He would probably trip because he couldn't really see over all the stuff he had taken. So he levitated slightly and slowly flew up the stairs. Nothing happened yet. So far so good. Then he realized that he couldn't open the door. So he knocked on it lightly with his head.  
  
"Hey, Goten," he whispered. "Let me in. I can't open the door."  
  
A voice came from the other side. "State your name and purpose."  
  
"Oh, shut up and let me in," Trunks grumbled.  
  
Goten giggled on the other side of the door. "If you are unauthorized to be here, you will have to be eliminated."  
  
Trunks rolled his eyes. He put the stuff down on the floor and tried the knob. It was locked.  
  
"Goten!"  
  
Goten could be heard chuckling on the other side.  
  
"Goten, I have your food."  
  
"I don't need to eat anything."  
  
A loud gurgle sounded from the bedroom.  
  
There was a second's pause before the door swung open.  
  
"I lied."  
  
Trunks rushed in with the snacks and movies and Goten shut and locked the door before attacking the edibles. Trunks popped in a movie and turned out the lights. Then, as an afterthought, pushed some of the clutter on his floor to the crack between the door and the floor, that way when someone passed they wouldn't see the light from the television or computer. Then he sat back and saved a couple handfuls of food from Goten the Bottomless Pit before watching the film.  
  
Ouch.  
  
Goten woke up incredibly stiff. All he needed was the pain to realize that he was at Trunks's house. When he fell asleep on the floor there, which was done one third of the time he went over, he always regretted it. Maybe if Trunks didn't keep so many small, hard things on his carpet, Goten wouldn't feel like he had slept on a bed of spikes. He was sure Trunks cleaned his room, because his mom was every bit as strict as Goten's except that Trunks got his room messier in a shorter time and his mother didn't check that often. And his best friend's pain was the result. But then¼  
  
Goten did a mental grin, because his body was in too much pain to a real one. One fourth of the time, Trunks fell asleep on the floor with him.  
  
Trunks was snoring next to the dark-haired boy, and looking very uncomfortable. Goten made no move to help the prince to his bed. In Goten's opinion, Trunks deserved it. He really needed a reason to clean his room. Goten stood up and stretched, working the kinks and crinks out of his body. Then he looked at the clock.  
  
9:37 AM. No way. Goten had woken up early. Well, earlier than he usually did whenever he stayed up that late. He stepped over Trunks's body and checked the DVD player. It had done an auto-shutdown. Either that, or Bulma had come in and turned it off for them. He looked around, and noticed that the DVD and two videotapes were missing. That was funny. If Bulma had found them, he was sure that she would have yelled at them for staying up too late, and then yelled at them some more for finding no evidence of homework, which she most likely would have searched for after finding the two boys passed out. Maybe Bra had¼ Nah, she would have been just like Pan: make as much noise and chaos as she could to wake them up. Well, Goten felt bad enough at the moment to believe that he could have slept through it. But then if all failed, Bra would have gotten Bulma to wake them up, and if that failed, she would have blackmailed Vegeta into it. Unless she really did go to find her mother and  
Bulma told Bra to leave the boys alone. The only other possibility was that Trunks had taken everything downstairs, climbed back upstairs, and then fell asleep as soon as he closed the door.  
  
Nah. Of all people, Trunks would be smart enough to make sure he dropped on the bed rather than the floor, no matter how tired he was.  
  
Then a very tantalizing scent made its way up Goten's nostrils.  
  
Food! was the automatic thought on his mind before the smell even registered in his mind. Breakfast!  
  
Goten looked down at Trunks. Should he wake his friend? Well, if he didn't, there would be more food for Goten. What a very good thought.  
  
In a flash, Goten was up and out the bedroom door. He nearly crashed into Bra, who was walking down the hall.  
  
"Hey, watch it!" she snapped at Goten's quickly retreating back. "I was supposed to wake you up!"  
  
By the time she finished saying that, Goten had taken various foods from the robot cookers and started eating.  
  
"Good morning, Goten," said Bulma, smiling. However, she quickly traded the pleasant look for a frown that would have made even Piccolo flinch. "And just how late did you boys stay up last night?"  
  
Goten froze in mid-chew. He swallowed. Then he turned to face the glowering parent behind him.  
  
"Uhhh¼ I'm not sure, Aunt Bulma," he said, trying to think of something good to say before he was yelled at. Or worse, denied a meal. He put on his "innocent-son-of-Goku" face. "We were kind of tired from school, and didn't really look at the clock."  
  
The various expressions that passed through Bulma's face instantly informed Goten that she wasn't buying it. She snagged the plate out from under Goten's fork.  
  
"Go wake up Trunks," she said.  
  
Just then, the said teen flew down the stairs and instantly began gorging himself, as his friend had done just seconds before. Goten gulped down as much food as he could from a different plate as the treatment he had gotten from Bulma was unleashed upon Trunks, only about one million times worse. Minutes later, however, Goten was once again included into a group lecture.  
  
"Do you two know how much electricity you used?!!!!! You were supposed to do your work, then go to bed!!! You're not supposed to stay up late making a racket and robbing the house of food!!!"  
  
Trunks was going to say that the company made enough money to support the bills and the robots looked like they had plenty of food left, but one glare from his mother told him that even if he tried, he wouldn't be able to get a word in edgewise. Then it started to get worse.  
  
"NEXT TIME YOU BOYS SAY THAT YOU ARE GOING TO WORK, YOU WORK!!! AND TRAINING DOES NOT COUNT AS WORK!!! NEITHER DOES ANYTHING HAVING TO DO WITH NON-EDUCATIONAL WEBSITES AND VIDEO GAMES!!! AND BELIEVE ME, NEXT TIME I CATCH YOU TWO SLACKING OFF, THERE WILL BE NO ELECTRICITY IN YOUR ROOM FOR A WEEK, AND NOTHING BUT A TWO WATT FLASHLIGHT TO HELP YOU STUDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
Goten and Trunks didn't wait to hear the rest. With a quick look at each other, they fled from the house, their ears ringing from Bulma's scolding.  
  
About halfway into the woods, Trunks's stomach gurgled. The sound was echoed by Goten's, only not so loudly. They both stopped.  
  
"Mama didn't give me a chance to eat anything," said Trunks, disbelievingly.  
  
Goten pulled a little smile at the knowledge that he had more food packed away than his friend, but his stomach was saying, "What difference does that make? Gimme food!"  
  
"We can't go to your Mom's," said Trunks. "She'll kill us if we turn up, especially if Mama called her already."  
  
"Let's go see if we can get something to eat at Gohan's," suggested Goten. "I go there to eat half of the time, and they never mind."  
  
"Okay, let's go," said Trunks, and they both took off.  
  
They flew a little more into the forest, when Goten said, "Hey, this is where we were fighting yesterday."  
  
Trunks looked down at the carnage of uprooted and splintered trees and disturbed dirt craters below them. In the distance he could see a mountain with a hole blown clean through the other side of it.  
  
Goten just realized that he reminded Trunks that they had been fighting. He really didn't Trunks to start attacking again, when he barely had any food in him. Trunks had this ability that scared Goten: Trunks could still fight long and hard even if he was hungry. Goten couldn't do that, but he could still run away to somewhere where he could gulp enough food down to fight back.  
  
Trunks also remembered his little promise to make sure Goten didn't live through slamming the locker door on his head. But he was too hungry and it was too early for him to worry about it. He knew where Goten lived, his family, his phone number, and one million other things that would make fighting the black-haired boy again no problem. After stuffing himself with some of Videl's cooking, he would beat Goten to a pulp.  
  
Goten didn't want to raise his ki in case Trunks noticed and decided to attack if he wasn't thinking of attacking already. But he kept it in check, and kept an eye on Trunks in case the older boy decided to make a move.  
  
Together, they gracefully glided downwards, touching down on the grass in front of the second Son home. Goten let his guard down, because if Trunks tried to kill him there and Pan saw, she would run out and do everything in her power to distract Trunks. As in: jumping on him, attempting to pry him off of her uncle, flying around, being a pest, biting, yelling, and peppering Trunks with her way-too-undersized fists. Goten smiled to himself. The last time Pan did that, Trunks got so annoyed that he unintentionally threw the girl. Of course, he caught hell from Videl for doing that, then from ChiChi, and a little bit from Gohan. It was guaranteed. Trunks knew that also, and looked a bit nervously around the area. He also backed up about five extra feet from Goten.  
  
The younger boy grinned. If only Pan could be around him and Trunks every day...  
  
Goten held that thought. The risk of Trunks attempting to murder him was way overshadowed by the number of times he would go crazy in Pan's presence. Okay, scratch that thought.  
  
The youngest half-saiyan walked up to the door of this brother's family's house. Before knocking, he pressed his ear to the door. If he caught Videl when she wasn't fully awake, she would do all sorts of unthinkable things to him, brother-in-law or no. He heard Pan talking a mile a minute, trying to explain one of her favorite television shows to Gohan, who was stuttering when he wasn't asking "stupid" (to Pan) questions. Trunks listened in on Gohan's Saturday morning family life also, and inwardly smiled when Gohan finally got smart enough to shut up and let his daughter do the talking. He was fighting a losing battle anyway when he wanted to know why Pan liked the TV so much. Then Videl's voice was heard asking what Pan wanted for breakfast, and Pan quickly changed her talking subject into what she wanted to eat and how she wanted it cooked. For that one sentence, Videl sounded clear enough, so Goten pulled his head away from the door and knocked.  
  
The door was opened by Gohan, who looked a bit surprised to see the two boys standing there, but realization dawned on his face, and he let them in. Gohan knew that the boys were here for food, and that it most likely had something to with ChiChi.  
  
Goten walked in first, and as he did, he managed to note the air moving from a certain disruption before Gohan's front door slammed on his head, catching his skull right between the side of the door and the doorframe.  
  
The now-splintered-but-still-holding door swung back open, revealing a very-satisfied-looking Trunks. Killing Goten would have gotten himself murdered by ChiChi, even if they could use the dragonballs. Giving Goten a taste of his own medicine was much mor pleasing, especially since he could tell that the house door slamming on Goten's head obviously caused much more pain than the locker door slamming on Trunks's head. But then again, those Sons did have thick skulls...  
  
Goten instantly whirled on Trunks, with a basketball-sized bump with a band-aid sticking out of his head. Comical tears made solid white rivers down his face as he angrily yelled, "What did you do THAT for?!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
Trunks shot a blinding smile at his friend. "It's better than your Mom finding your body drowning in a lake of your own blood, right?"  
  
Goten chocked down all the words he wanted to say, and held back all the things that he wanted to do, because he knew that Trunks was right. Better to get it over with than to worry about Trunks's latest "I'm Going to Use This Idea to Eliminate Son Goten From this Dimension" scheme. Goten knew that the longer Trunks had time to come up with that, the more harder-to-escape his plan would be.  
  
"Oh, okay," he said, grouchily. "But I'm going to get you back for this."  
  
Gohan looked at them both a little strangely before continuing to walk into the house, his guests following him.  
  
"UncleGotenUncleGotenUncleGoten!" a high-pitched voice screeched as Goten was painfully tackled to the ground by what appeared to Trunks as a little red-and-black blur. The stars that were swirling around his head from the door slam didn't help matters.  
  
"Good morning, Pan," said Goten, wincing.  
  
Then Pan turned her head to Trunks. The fair-haired boy had a good idea about what was coming, and started backing away slowly.  
  
"TrunksTrunksTrunksTrunksTrunksTrunks!"  
  
This time, Trunks was the one that hit the floor on his back. The next thing he knew, he was staring into a large pair of brown eyes.  
  
"Hey, squirt."  
  
Pan frowned. That's when Trunks knew that he wasn't going to get out of that house with just a couple of sore body parts.  
  
"I'm not a squirt! I'm not a squirt! Don't call me that!" she started shouting, jumping up and down on Trunks's abdomen. Each time Pan landed, Trunks's eyes bugged out of their sockets and his arms and legs flew up. She may have been tiny, but she sure wasn't light.  
  
"Pan, Pan, you stop that right now!" Gohan commanded, catching Pan just before she hit Trunks's stomach again. By then, the poor prince was half unconscious. The little quarter-saiyan looked at Trunks for a second before shooting three miniature ki blasts straight at his face. Now, Trunks was most definitely in La-La Land.  
  
Gohan gasped, and turned Pan around so that she was facing him, pinning both of her hands to her sides. "Now Pan, that wasn't a very nice thing to do."  
  
Pan pouted and was just about to complain to her father, when Videl announced: "Honey, your food is ready!"  
  
"Oh boy, food!" Pan, Gohan, and Goten yelled at the same time.  
  
Pan and Gohan raced for the dining table, but Goten just remembered that none of the food was his. Trunks took no notice of his missed meal because images of Brittany Spears were dancing around his head, and the singing was loud enough to drown everything else out.  
  
"Trunks? Trunks?" Goten asked, picking up his friend by the shoulders and shaking him. "C'mon, man, snap out of it!"  
  
Then the black-haired boy looked at the crater in the shape of Trunks's head on the floor. There was also an imprint of Trunks's back where Pan literally jumped him. Goten cringed, making a mental note never to insult Pan too harshly. Oh well, at least Pan did Goten's job of getting back at Trunks. Now Goten wouldn't have to stress himself out about how he was going to cause Trunks severe pain. Also, Trunks couldn't get back at Goten, because, technically, Goten didn't do it. And of course the middle half-sayain knew that even looking at Pan funny was bound to be suicide. Goten could have said "Hey, squirt," and gotten away with it, because he was Pan's only blood uncle and favorite uncle before Krillen besides. Trunks, however, was most definitely a very different matter.  
  
"Give me the address of one more porno site and I swear I'll never bother you again," Trunks mumbled.  
  
Goten's eyebrows furrowed. He let go of Trunks with one hand, pulled it back, and then swung a right hook that heavily connected with the side of the older boy's face.  
  
Trunks instantly snapped to, blinking rapidly. He caught sight of Goten, and took a moment to glare at him before throwing a responding punch, which Goten caught.  
  
"Boys, what are you doing?" Videl asked, standing over them with a mixing spoon in her hand.  
  
"Hello Videl!" the both of them chirped, hoping that she didn't think that they were doing anything bad. They nearly wrecked one whole side of the house with their fighting before. And when they were playing, they did wreck one whole side of the house. Of course, they had to pay for it with job money, and Gohan's family had to stay at the first Son house until Capsule Corps. got the second one repaired. The renovation didn't take long, but that didn't mean that Videl was happy about it. If the two did anything else that she figured would also result in mass destruction in her territory, the teens were going to wish they had never been born.  
  
"Food's on the table," the former Satan said.  
  
Trunks and Goten didn't need to hear anything else. Without hesitation, the two charged at the display of food on the table, not even pausing for a breath between bites. It took two minutes for all the edibles to disappear. The four part-saiyans leaned backwards in their seats, patting their stomachs. Videl came to take the platters away.  
  
"So glad you enjoyed my meal," she growled, glaring at each of the half saiyans.  
  
The three males cowered before starting to compliment Videl on her cooking.  
  
"That was the best!"  
  
"That was so good!"  
  
"You're the greatest, Videl!"  
  
"Thank you so much Videl!"  
  
"I'm sorry we made you cook more, Videl."  
  
"That was better than usual, honey."  
  
"Thank's for breakfast, Mom."  
  
"Oh, it was nothing," said Videl, smiling pleasantly before taking care of the dishes.  
  
"Ack! It's time for my cartoon!" yelled Pan, and she dashed from her seat in a speed that could have rivaled Bra's when the blue-haired girl stormed department stores.  
  
Trunks, Goten and Gohan were left in their chairs.  
  
"Soooo," said Trunks, slowly, all previous wounds healed with the last bite of food, "since when did Videl start acting like your Mom?"  
  
Goten stared at Trunks with a deadpan expression. "Ever since she realized that Mom's cooking really is way better than her's."  
  
Gohan got a worried look on his face. "Ssssssshhhh, she might hear you!"  
  
The boys froze. Videl came back into the room with some food for herself. As she sat down, she wondered why the guys were staring at her like that.  
  
"Did you get your books, Goten?" Gohan casually asked.  
  
The youngest boy stiffened. He knew that if he didn't show up at his mother's house before noon without any books, he was really going to get it. Goten also knew that he wouldn't be able to get away this time. He had only about an hour to find his books!  
  
"Er... no, I didn't," said Goten, grateful that their sentences were easily worded so that Videl didn't know what books they were talking about. "But I'm going to get them right now. And you're coming with me, right Trunks?"  
  
"Right," said Trunks. He knew that if ChiChi didn't see him with Goten and the schoolbooks, she wouldn't call Bulma to let Trunks off the hook. "Sorry to eat and run, but we really have to go. Bye Videl, bye Gohan."  
  
"Bye Videl, thanks for the food. Bye Bro."  
  
With that, they all but flew out the door.  
  
"They have to be around here somewhere!" Goten exclaimed in frustration.  
  
He and Trunks had been up and down the area where they had been fighting, most of the rest of the forest, and practically along half the route they took from school. There was no sign of Goten's schoolbooks. Not a single loose leaf, scratch paper, or a page of lost notes was sighted. He plopped himself down on a broken branch, bored and exhausted.  
  
"How can this happen to me? Why did this happen to me? I bet Dende's having fun up there, watching us," Goten groaned.  
  
"Hey, that's an idea," said Trunks, tossing aside a tree. "We can go up to Dende's Lookout and ask if he saw where the books are."  
  
"That would take too much time," said Goten. "I have ten minutes before the latest Mom would let me get back into the house and live."  
  
"You know, if you go to your house beforehand without the books, she won't let you live anyway," the purple-haired boy responded.  
  
"Yeah, well... Hey! A dino-print!" Goten stood up and pointed.  
  
"Huh?" asked Trunks, turning to see.  
  
"A dinosaur footprint! One of those dang animals must have swiped my books!" the younger boy announced, triumphantly.  
  
"Now, what makes you think that?" Trunks asked, his usual reaction to Goten's seemingly-brainless-yet-over-reactive imagination.  
  
"Well," Goten stated. "We looked all over the area and can't find my books anywhere, so something must have taken them. And these are the only prints I can find around here that aren't too small for a creature who could carry my books or are ours."  
  
Trunks looked at his friend.  
  
Goten stared back. "Well, can you think of a better way to find out where they are besides searching this area that we've already been through six times? Come on, let's see where these lead to anyway."  
  
Trunks had to admit, that sounded better than looking over every inch of the woods again.  
  
They were flying faster than the speed that they animal they were following was moving, judging by the shape, depth and distance of the tracks. Goten was frowning as he followed the marked path. The thing had all day the day before to move, and Goten was really hoping that they could catch the thing before his time was up. Looking at his watch, he realized that even if he did catch the thing, he would ever make it back home in time. Oh, well, maybe Gohan would back them up somehow.  
  
"Here we are!" said Goten, as he found the prints leading into a cave. Then he halted. "Oh no."  
  
"What oh?" Trunks asked, peering around Goten.  
  
By then, the younger boy was sweatdropping. "Oh well, he-he, this shouldn't be too hard...," he gulped, and chuckled a bit. "Dende, I can't believe I was so stupid..."  
  
"Er... what are you talking about, Goten?" asked Trunks, not seeing what Goten was so cracked about.  
  
"Do you remember Gohan's friend, Icarus?" said Goten.  
  
Trunks shook his head.  
  
"You know...Gohan's dragon friend?"  
  
Oh.  
  
"So, let's go in there and get my books back!" said Goten. "Geez, we're lucky that Dad found this cave so close to home."  
  
He landed and walked in, Trunks following suit.  
  
"Icarus!" Goten called, looking around inside. "Icarus, are you there?"  
  
The cave was bigger than when he last saw it. The little monster probably dug around a bit. Icarus was probably going to have shown evidence of growth also. Maybe he was bigger than they were!  
  
"Icarus! Ic- Hey, my books!"  
  
Goten picked a stack of books off the floor. There was nothing wrong with them except that they had claw-shaped dents in them. "It's nice to know that he didn't do anything to them. Gohan said that Icarus took his schoolbooks all the time, but they were always here, and unharmed, except for one..." He trailed off as he counted his inventory. "My biology book isn't here!"  
  
Trunks slapped a hand to head and dropped onto the floor. "Oh no... my electricity..."  
  
"Wait, I know where he took it!" said Goten, flying back out the cave entrance, books in hand.  
  
Trunks flew after him, having to nearly foy at his top speed to keep up with Goten. "Where are we going?"  
  
"Gohan always said that Icarus would take one book!" Goten shouted over his shoulder. The wind was howling around them really loudly from their speed. "And then he would go to this place Gohan showed me! It's the same place where I train with Piccolo!"  
  
"So that means," Trunks yelled back, "once we get back that book, we can show them to your mom?"  
  
"No," replied Goten, "Gohan said that when Icarus did that, he wanted someone to play with!"  
  
Trunks would have chosen that moment to fall out of the sky, that is, if he weren't so hard-pressed to keep up with the younger boy.  
  
"Here!"  
  
Goten skidded to a stop as he landed on a rock ledge, Trunks right behind him. Gravel sprayed in every direction as they tried to cut their speed.  
  
"Now all we have to do," said Goten as he put the books that he had down on a large stone, "is look for him. And we're going to have to make a game out of it if we want to get back to Mom's faster, okay?"  
  
Trunks nodded, and looked around. The whole place was a humongous flat rock, with grey boulders scattered on it's surface. The little dragon was probably behind one of those. At least, Trunks figured that maybe Icarus was still little. Then he caught sight of where Goten left his stuff.  
  
"Er... Goten?" he called. "Are you sure that leaving your books here is safe?"  
  
"Sure!" Goten answered, flying around a rock. "Gohan never said that Icarus took his books again afterwards."  
  
Trunks was a bit uneasy, but shrugged. Oh well, what the heck.  
  
Goten was zooming around each rock. "Icarus! Icarus! Where are you?"  
  
Trunks shook his head. He knew full well that they could fly faster than the purple monster, and if they made the flight back into a race, Icarus would be content for awhile. The only thing about that was that they would have to fly slower to let the dragon keep up.  
  
Trunks flew high into the air, and looked down at the area below him. Icarus was nowhere to be seen. That's when he realized that some of the rock had overhangs. Icarus could be hiding under a rock, rather than around it. Of course he would, Trunks betted that Gohan had tried the same technique before when he was really pressed for time. If Gohan had flew up to look down enough times, Icarus would have gotten smart enough to hide somewhere where a person couldn't find him even while flying. He sighed, touched down, and started aiding Goten in the search.  
  
All was quiet, except for the occasional twittering of birds overhead, Goten's calls for Icarus, and the frequent BOOM! of Trunks dropping a boulder that he had picked up. They didn't know how long they had been looking when Goten finally went, "Gotcha!"  
  
There was a squeal, and Trunks found Goten with a squirming dragon in his arms. Icarus hadn't grown much at all, save a few inches, since the boy had last seen him, which was a couple of years ago. Actually, more like ten years ago, Trunks thought, remembering.  
  
"Come on, give it here," Goten said, wrestling with the small winged dinosaur.  
  
Icarus squealed again, beating his wings as he tried to get out of the saiyan's grip. His wings and one foot repeatedly hit Goten, who wasn't getting hurt at all, just annoyed. Goten was trying to get his books out of Icarus's arms without hurting his friend. Trunks just stared at the both of them, trying to a look at Goten's watch to how late they were. At least he knew that they were late.  
  
"Ha!"  
  
Goten held up a hand, which held his bio book with a vise-like grip.  
  
"Okay, now let's get out of here!" Trunks said, picking up the rest of Goten's books and taking off.  
  
"Wha-?" Goten interjected, taking a glance at his watch. "Oh no, Mom's gonna kill me!"  
  
He used a running leap to boost his rising speed.  
  
"Hold it, we have to wait for Icarus, unless you want him taking your books again!" Trunks called, slowing down.  
  
Goten turned to see a little purple speck squeal and fly after them. The black-haired boy came to a mid-air stop, knowing perfectly well that Icarus knew his way both to and into the house, thanks to his friendship with Gohan.  
  
They waited for the dragon to get just close enough where he could follow without a problem, and then flew at speed where they led the creature on, yelling encouragement and taunts behind them to let Icarus have some fun, sometimes doing flips and other tricks and watching Icarus try to copy them, sometime succeeding and sometimes not, getting some entertainment in for themselves. They still remembered that they had to get to ChiChi's right away, though.  
  
When they were approaching Icarus's cave, though, Goten nodded at Trunks and they booth took off at their top speed for the Son house. Goten knew that Icarus wouldn't be able to keep up and would most likely go into his cave out of exhaustion. They flew to the ground in front of the door, and Trunks handed Goten his books. Before they could make any other moves, however, the door flew open, revealing a very enraged ChiChi.  
  
"AND JUST WHERE HAVE THE TWO OF YOU BEEN?!!!!!!!!" she roared.  
  
The two boys had to fight the urge to cover their ears, knowing that it would just make ChiChi angrier.  
  
"BULMA CALLED THIS MORNING TO SAY THAT YOU LEFT, BUT DID YOU COME BACK? NO! AND I HOPE THAT THE REASON YOU ARE SO LATE HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH YOUR SCHOOLWORK, OTHERWISE YOU WON'T GET ANY DINNER, AND I'LL CALL TO MAKE SURE BULMA AND VIDEL DON'T DIVE YOU SOME EITHER!!!!!!! Not like they can cook better than me, of course, but YOU BETTER HAVE A GOOD REASON FOR BEING SO LATE!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
Trunks and Goten cowered in front of the enraged woman. Trunks finally got a good look at Goten's watch. 1:30. Great.  
  
"Aunt ChiChi," started Trunks, but he stopped and cringed when ChiChi gave him her full attention... and the full force of her glare. The look on her face, however, said something akin to "Go on," so Trunks went on. "Aunt ChiChi, I'm sorry we're late, but we stopped by Gohan's to ask some questions for a homework assignment this morning."  
  
"You did?" she asked, suspiciously, turning to Goten.  
  
Her second son nodded rapidly, his head bobbing up and down. ChiChi caught sight of Goten's schoolbooks, which helped a little, but they weren't off the hook yet.  
  
"You can even ask Gohan, if you want," said Goten.  
  
They were lucky that Videl saw them there, and didn't know what they had done, really, because they knew that ChiChi would ask Videl what happened instead. She knew full well that Gohan would make up excuses for them. Her eyes narrowed, but she opened the door and let them in.  
  
Goten and Trunks headed for Goten's room, where they dropped the books and collapsed on the bed. They both held their breaths as they heard ChiChi talk on the phone with Bulma, then Videl.  
  
"Hello, Videl? Did Trunks and Goten stop by your house this morning? They did? They did? Oh, just asking. Thank you. Yes, it's still on. Okay. Good bye."  
  
Then ChiChi got back on the phone with Bulma again.  
  
Goten let out a sigh of relief. "Yes! It's over! I'm saved!"  
  
"Me, too!" Trunks said as he heard what must have been ChiChi's response to Bulma saying that she wasn't going to cut off the electricity to Trunks's room.  
  
Both still on the bed, they looked at each other.  
  
"Now that's over with," said Trunks. "Do you want to go spar."  
  
"Sure," said Goten, smiling as they both got up. Goten opened the window. "Prepare to die."  
  
"You first," Trunks replied as they flew out the open crevice.  
  
Yes! It's over! I did it! I finished 1chapter! (Jumps around joyously) Wait, I'm making about two more chapters for this (Stops jumping). By the way, I didn't make this a yaoi story because I just discovered that I have the inability to type one. I've tried numerous times, and, trust me, you don't want to see my pathetic attempts. Since I have disk problems and only have certain selected days where I am able to type, it would take at least three months for the next chapter to get out. This came out better than I expected. I know I varied how hungry Trunks gets. That was a mistake but I am too lazy to fix it. It does affect the plot after all. Pan only shoots small ki blasts because since she is about five, she can't shoot any bigger. I know Gohan is too mild on her, but this is Gohan we're talking about. He'd act like that anyway. I put Krillen as Pan's second favorite uncle, if anyone is confused (she does call Krillen "uncle," right?). Trunks thinks of Brittany Spears  
because I figured Pamela Anderson was too old. The thing he mutters about porno sites is a memory of him picking on a guy to tell him where he found porno pictures when Trunks was in the fifth grade. I replaced the name "Kami's Lookout" with "Dende's" because, technically, it's Dende's. I don't know if Goten and Trunks know Dende personally like everyone else. Can someone please tell me? 


End file.
